With labour peace not a lingering issue in Major League Baseball, players and owners are sounding more like partners these days, especially on the issue of performance enhancing drugs.

“Players at this point have very little patience for players who are trying to cheat the system,” said Michael Weiner, executive director of the MLB Players Association. “They understand that year-round HGH testing is an important component of deterrence.”

Weiner was in Dunedin Monday to talk to the Blue Jays’ players as part of the MLBPA’s annual tour of training camps and said that even though baseball has the toughest PED penalties in sport, they could be discussing sterner penalties going forward.

“We’ve had a good discussion whether or not 50 games for a first time (penalty) is sufficient, and we’ll discuss that over the course of 2013.

“More and more players are vocal about their desire to have a clean game. More and more players are vocal about being willing to accept sacrifices in terms of testing in order to make sure we have a clean game.”

PEDs have leapt back into the headlines as a result of recent news reports about a Miami biogenesis lab that includes many baseball players on its client list.

Blue Jays outfielder Melky Cabrera is among those named, although the Jays are of the belief that any transactions would probably be covered under his 50-game suspension last summer.

Weiner isn’t so definite.

“It’s a tough and complicated legal question,” he said. “I think the commissioner’s office could take the position that if they had evidence of a separate violation, conceivably they could seek additional discipline. We might challenge that. It’s a hard question to answer.

“I will say this: The players’ association has an obligation to represent any player who’s subject to discipline. The players’ association is also a signatory to a joint drug agreement, and the players’ association also has an obligation, not only to the players who are subject to discipline, but the vast majority of players who want a clean game.

“Right now, we and the commissioner’s office are trying to get to the bottom of a whole series of issues, including whether there’s anything to get to the bottom of in Miami.”

Weiner also said the players and the commissioner’s office will be studying the effects on player movement of the revised rules surrounding draft pick compensation. On the one hand, free agents subject to draft choice compensation went from 30 down to nine this year, but a good pitcher such as Kyle Lohse is still looking for a new team.

“Neither side intended for compensation to be a bar to clubs acquiring players they think can help them win,” he said. “It was supposed to have an impact, but not be a bar, and we’ll address that.”

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MLB players, owners cooperating on PEDs

With labour peace not a lingering issue in Major League Baseball, players and owners are sounding more like partners these days, especially on the issue of performance enhancing drugs.

“Players at this point have very little patience for players who are trying to cheat the system,” said Michael Weiner, executive director of the MLB Players Association. “They understand that year-round HGH testing is an important component of deterrence.”

Weiner was in Dunedin Monday to talk to the Blue Jays’ players as part of the MLBPA’s annual tour of training camps and said that even though baseball has the toughest PED penalties in sport, they could be discussing sterner penalties going forward.

“We’ve had a good discussion whether or not 50 games for a first time (penalty) is sufficient, and we’ll discuss that over the course of 2013.

“More and more players are vocal about their desire to have a clean game.